These shopkeepers and cowboys have no idea how the other 99% live!
It always amazes me how little many FReepers understand about how manufacturing works in this country. They seem to have the impression that a roll of steel rolls in one end of a factory and a finished car rolls out the other.
It just don’t work that way. A factory might have their one big bread and butter job but they’ll have a half dozen other smaller jobs running at the same time for any number of other companies. I once went to the far end of the shop where I made door skins for Cadillac and found a press pumping out frisbees for a special Wham-O run.
Sorry that we productive members of society don’t understand you union folks. I have NEVER had a positive interaction with a union during my career! A pox on them and all their membership, and I hope the union members eventually get enough IQ points to decide to fire their union bosses.
Union folk hang together against "the man" (-agement). In a momentary fit of altruism, they'll call to their mind's eye how so-and-so of their number was screwed because they were ailing and not able to make their piece-rate (quota of output). I was quickly made aware how I was not to work hard or quickly (as a material handler), or they "would all be made to work harder". I wouldn't want that, would I?
Well, I wouldn't want the anger of the burly guy telling me that to come down on me--that much was clear--but I had been getting personal satisfaction about overcoming my learning curve for the job, and partly through finding efficiencies that allowed me to keep up with everyone else and all the bosses were telling me to do. I also saw how there was a pervasive slacker attitude among most of the workers that had no interest whatsoever going beyond the minimum of what their job demanded.
It took no time at all for me to realize that this behavior would make the products more expensive than they needed to be (even for my family on the outside, perhaps thinking they were doing me a favor by buying our product) and would give the competition, particularly foreigners who worked for less wage/ hour, opportunity to compete readily in a market held back by these unionists and their anti-productivity attitude that was counter to management at every turn.
We were made to think union products represented quality, but knowing how union inspectors worked, I didn't find that argument particularly persuasive.
From my school days, I knew that union violence was somehow unfairly protected against prosecution, and I pictured that I'd have to develop some kind of strategy to keep from getting hurt if there was a strike.
To make a long story short, I know first-hand the inherent destructiveness of unions and determined to get out of there and back to school to qualify for a job that would keep my life from being entangled with unions.
I did that, and was wildly successful!
HF